The First King's Last Night: Saul & The Witch of Ein Dor (Ba’alat Ov)

A short Tanakh story and one of the strangest: Saul, on the eve of battle consults a pagan necromancer to raise the prophet Samuel from the dead to find out his fate. Combining midrash, medieval commentaries, and Israeli poetry, this lecture looks at the life of the first King of Israel from the perspective of his last night alive.